Dr. Martin Brummell

Dr Brummell initially set out to become a Marine Biologist, and graduated with a B.Sc. (Biology) from the University of Victoria, Canada in 2001. This is a coastal university with a strong program in marine science, including intensive courses at the Bamfield Marine Science Centre on the west coast of Vancouver Island. However, post-graduate work, starting with an MSc at Simon Fraser University led into Genetics and Evolutionary Biology, and later into a PhD in Soil Science at the University of Saskatchewan. Soil Science is, by one definition, the exact opposite of Marine Biology: soil is defined as that part of the Earth's surface not normally covered by water. But both environments, though profoundly different, harbour the microorganisms that cycle carbon and nitrogen through the biosphere. Dr Brummell's field work for his PhD was conducted in the Canadian High Arctic, focused on the soils and the patterns and processes of greenhouse gas – greenhouse gases being important components of global C and N cycles – exchange between polar desert and polar oasis soils, and the atmosphere.

Dr Brummell has undertaken four post-doctoral positions, first at the University of Waterloo, in Restoration Ecology and the study of disturbed, restored, and not-yet-disturbed peatlands across Canada. Then he moved to Université Laval, Quebec, to continue in this field. Dr Brummell's experiences and expertise expanded with the increasing range of disturbed and restored ecosystems under study by moving to Laurentian University in Sudbury, the site of some of the most dramatic ecological damage and restoration in Canada.

Dr Brummell was accepted into the University of New England Post-Doctoral Fellowship (UNE-PDF) program in Armidale, New South Wales, Australia, where his studies encompassed the microorganisms associated with flowers and pollinators, and the landscape-level factors that drive this three-way interaction between plants, insects, and the vast, barely-explored world of Microbial Ecology. At the end of the three-year fellowship Dr Brummell transitioned to a part-time teaching role, coordinating ERS381, ERS581, and ERS502 while continuing to be active in several research programs.